Thursday, December 5, 2013

It's "The Holidays." The time of year when we make excuses for our absence ("It's the holidays, and I'm so busy") It is the time of year when we are supposed to be kinder to our fellow man, "In the spirit of the holiday." That's the idea. When it's over, we can go back to being the despicable bastards that we are. But for now, it's all "love one another" and "kindness" crapola. It's all too phony for me to believe.

The idea springs from The Bible - or we are led to believe. There are conflicting ideas. On the one hand, we are told it's a Christian celebration of our savior's birth. On the other hand, we are told it's the season of Santa and his sack of toys, and that impossible idea that he brings toys to "all the good boys and girls of the world." You can believe what you wish to believe. The facts fly in the face of that...

When the Christ-child was born "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Judaea in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date.

And, that's how it begins. If you are to believe that this is the season of His birth, then you must believe in the truth. The idea of Christmas being a Christian celebration of [anything] are fallacy in the highest degree. There is a mixture of beliefs that can only be perpetrated by modern marketing. Christmas trees, Christian masses, Santa Claus, the birth of Christ, parades, and gift-giving. It's apples and oranges. Whether or not you choose to face it is up to you.

The book "Answers to Questions," compiled by Frederick J. Haskins, says: "The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era."

You have fallen for marketing that is only as old as you. The idea of Christmas and its Pagan ideas goes way beyond what you have lived through. Do some research and find out how silly those beliefs are and how you have given-into the idea of guilt-associated gift-giving. It's sad, really.

From the Bibliotheca Sacra, volume 12, pages 153- 155, I quote: "The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the Pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows."

Christmas has become a holiday of spending and marketing, propagated by retailers. They market it as a time of guilt. If you do not justify your love for others by purchasing the "perfect gift" for them, then you have failed. It is the root of the season. You can call it a Christian holiday or make it into some sort of societal celebration of goodness - but it is really built around retail marketing and guilt.

The bigger problem is that "the season" has gotten to the point that it now extends beyond Thanksgiving, into October and has become a source of income for our giant retail machine. What the retail machine has come to realize is that, if they can convince us to rear our children to believe in this nonsense, they can survive through another generation of guilt-associated gift-giving. And so on, and so on - until we are so deep into it that we have forgotten where it came from.

"It's the holiday season" or "It's the holidays" go the pre-packaged responses to things posed to people between now and the end of the year. I would call them excuses, but others see them as reasons that they cannot either process information or accomplish tasks - other than the requisite shopping.

We (you) burden ourselves with guilt-ridden gift-giving at Christmas. The advertisements are filled with angst. "Make this the perfect gift for the ones you care for." "Tell them how much you love them with [fill-in the name of the item]."

We (you) are supposed to find the ideal item that will express your deepest emotions when you find it, wrap it with paper and place it under a symbol of Pagan seasonal worship at this, the holiest of holy seasons.

It's supposed to be a time of ... oh, I don't know, worship - gratitude - giving - you name it. What it has become is a season of spending and financial sacrifice to prove that we love others. Stores are open on Thanksgiving so that we can get a jump on those incredible "Door Buster" savings. NOTE: I checked the stores on Saturday. Doors are intact.

Jewelry stores advertise rings and other such male-induced guilt-induced love spending. Even auto-makers get in on the gimmick with so-called sales on cars. I have yet to see a car with a giant bow on the roof on Christmas morning. I guess I don't live right.